Re:The Battle Inside Signal
by fallingknife on Tuesday January 26, 2021 @12:56AM
(#25913028)
> The Black Lives Matter protests only get to be called insurrections if their goal was to supplant those authorities or forcefully override their will.
So, you mean like hypothetically taking over 6 blocks of downtown Seattle and declaring it an autonomous zone?
Look I wasn't there and the information about it is extremely two sided. People who liked/supported it said that it was basically a large-scale sit-in like OccupyWallSt which seems to match the photos of it and I think lives firmly on the side of protest. Otherwise more usual protests like street marches, blocking access to government buildings, or occupying streets with cars also become insurrection which doesn't make much sense.
Not even trying to play, if the Capitol shit was actually a sit-in a la #OccupyTheCapitol then I would be here defending their right to protest.
FWIW, I live down the street from where that zone was. It was indeed a large-scale sit-in-like protest, and cropped up in short term response due to SPD's insane tactics of tear-gassing the surrounding neighborhood before pulling out due to pissing everyone off.
I find that everyone who comments about this zone on here is not actually from Seattle, and just firing off the same talking points.
And look I can only speak for my city since I was there but calling the protests violent is technically true but misleading in the way “there was a fight” is misleading in zero tolerance school policies. Being at the front of the protest was terrifying because the police were itching for any excuse to escalate and purposely obstructing people, grabbing and pushing the crowd daring someone to push back. Tensions are already high and the police acting like schoolyard bullies doesn’t help, and finally some guy finally breaks with a “get your hands off me” they get pulled down to the ground and start getting beaten, people step in to defend the guy and pull the cops off him, more cops rush in and boom — “violence.”
The shit at the Capitol was absolutely moronic and they had basically zero chance of achieving their goal but the intent was there and that’s really what matters.